This invention relates to track assemblies for crawler-type vehicles.
Over the years, there have been a variety of proposals for various constructions of track assemblies for use in crawler-type vehicles. Most commonly, track assemblies are of all metal construction utilizing track links interconnected by pins and mounting metallic track shoes. While such assemblies have worked well for their intended purpose, because of their all metal construction, they are extremely heavy. Moreover, the use of track pins interconnecting the links poses a sizable maintenance problem in that the vehicles employing such track assemblies typically operate in extremely hostile environments. As a consequence, considerable wear of the pins joining adjacent links occurs. Frequent maintenance and replacement is therefore required and such can be extremely time-consuming and laborious due to the weight of the components involved.
Because of the foregoing difficulties, there have been a variety of lesser known proposals for crawler-type track assemblies which do not utilize hingedly interconnected track links and which may be formed, in part, of nonmetal components. While certain of the proposals of the latter category have considerable merit, they are not without shortcomings. For example, many utilize flexible belts, typically formed of a reinforced elastomer, which must be spliced to form an endless belt and/or include apertures extending through the belt through which fasteners extend to mount track shoes. Such splices and/or fastener receiving apertures weaken the belt which, of course, reduces the useful life thereof. Moreover, in many cases, the constructions of the latter category are not easily susceptible to use in crawler-type vehicles of conventional design without substantial modification to the track frames, drive sprockets, idler sprockets, etc.